Both Dawson's former mayor and former town manager say they are innocent of the several charges of breach of trust by a public officer, fraud and theft over $5,000.

'I know I won't be going in there and saying guilty,' Glenn Everitt, who served as the town's mayor, said this morning by telephone.

While Everitt, 43, faces two counts of each charge, former town manager Scott Coulson faces three counts of theft over $5,000 and one each of the breach and fraud charges.

It's alleged the offences for Everitt's charges happened between 1996 and 2004, while the offences Coulson is facing charges for happened between 2001 and 2004.

'I'm obviously going to fight it,' Coulson, 43, said in an interview from his home in Chilliwack, B.C. this morning.

He referred to the charges as 'total crap.'

While both men maintain their innocence, they were reluctant to comment extensively on their plans outside of that.

Coulson was planning to speak to a lawyer after being served with the charges Sunday, while Everitt said he was still deciding how to proceed. He noted he likely doesn't have the resources to pay for a lawyer.

'Unfortunately, I just feel stuck between a rock and a hard place,' he said, noting his family has been through a lot over the last 3 1/2 years of the RCMP investigation, which came out of an audit done on the town.

The $460,000 forensic audit completed in 2005 by a Vancouver auditor, concluded a substantial amount of money was unaccounted for in town records.

The audit was then given to the RCMP for investigation by the commercial crimes unit.

'A complaint of this nature takes a long time to investigate,' RCMP M-division Sgt. Roger Lockwood said this morning.

He said the investigation required sufficient time to complete and the forensic audit was not conducted as a criminal investigation.

Any allegations coming out of the audit had to be investigated to decide if there was enough evidence to proceed to charges, he explained.

Each of the charges have their own circumstances, he said.

Everitt and Coulson are scheduled to make their first court appearance on Aug. 28 in Dawson.